French wheat futures, basis November, were up 0.25 euros to 109.00 by the close. French intervention wheat, up for export for the first time this season, was very sought after. Traders placed total bids of 367,454 tonnes. The EU panel accepted 212,965 tonnes for export at a minimum price of 100.01 euros a tonne.
French grains office ONIC has said the stock sale could help kick-start shipments to Egypt, which are lagging behind last year due to fierce competition from Black Sea exporters.
In addition to the 500,000 tonnes of French intervention wheat available for export, some 200,000 tonnes was also up for sale to drought-hit Spain for the first time.
The EU sold 34,456 tonnes under the French tender, taking the total amount of grain sold for Spain to 94,482 this week.
There was a large number of bids for free-market wheat, totalling almost 1.5 million tonnes for subsidies starting as low as 6.00 euros a tonne and reaching 11.45 euros.
There is no EU grain panel meeting next Thursday due to the All Saints holiday. The panel will meet next on November 10.
Wheat export subsidies are politically sensitive both inside the Commission and with the bloc's trading partners. The EU has offered to eliminate export subsidies under current world trade negotiations, if others do the same.
But France believes EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has overstepped his mandate by being too generous in offers in the talks, notably on the issue of market access.
French President Jacques Chirac said on Thursday that Paris reserved the right to block any trade deal reached at a key WTO meeting in December if it went against EU agricultural policy.
The EU grain panel also rejected export bids for free-market barley but awarded 22,400 tonnes of oats. A bid for German intervention rye solely for biofuel use was also rejected.